Lamekis

by Charles de Fieux

  “Understand, Lamekis,” the Queen spoke softly in his ear, “you are dear to me and I will take care of you. But I do not want the power of my hidden enemies to grow any stronger. I have found out their plans: under the veil of religion and on the pretext of putting Serapis on my throne, they will place themselves there and sooner or later the dark caves will vomit out a tyrant and usurp the lawful power. The time has come to destroy their criminal designs.”

  She got up on the platform with Lamekis and revealed to the people the secrets of the catacombs and told them how dangerous it was to let the enemies keep growing in number and lying in wait to attack. She pointed out how many of them there were and finished her rant citing the kingdoms that were destroyed by such scheming sites. The end of her speech had the effect she expected. The Princess was loved and her words swayed them heavily because of her gracious character. Shouts rang out demanding the destruction of the underground. And only the respect they had for the Queen saved Lamekis from their fury. She arrested him only when they insisted that she had to get to the bottom of the matter. The people demanded that he be held under guard until the next day, when the powerful underground would be destroyed. She gave the High Priest to the guards to lead him to the palace so that he might be close at hand to help in the destruction, or so the Queen said, when really she just wanted to talk to him about her love that was as crucial to her as the action she set in motion.

  “Lamekis,” she said when she was alone with him in her room, “I have had eyes for you for a long time. In spite of what happened, you are priceless and my feelings for you keep you close to my heart. I don’t have to say any more. You can guess the rest. You will share the supreme power with me and in spite of my people’s fury I will save you and change their hatred into respect. Answer me. Don’t let my rank worry you. You know me and you should know that when a Queen confesses a weakness, she anticipates everything that can happen.

  Semiramis waited a long time for Lamekis’ response. He was troubled by her words and was battling in the inner depths of his soul. His natural generosity made him feel like a caring father for the people about to be destroyed, which stirred up infinite pity in him and made his soul tremble in fear. But whatever choice he made, he could not avoid the loss of what was most precious to him: Lamekis was a husband and father, but the Queen did not know that. Once the secret was revealed it would give rise to such jealousy in Semiramis, learning why he could not give his love to her, that she would not hesitate to kill all his loved ones. However, knowing that indecision on his part could not stop all these evils, he would rather die in virtue than live in crime and defile his ministry. He spoke to her with this mind. Semiramis tried her charms and tears to seduce him. Like a rock beaten by the waves, Lamekis’ virtue upheld him in this dangerous confrontation. He kept to his decision and did not surrender to any hope. Hatred followed upon love and the result of the battle was a command to deliver the High Priest to the people’s fury, which was urgently demanding his head.

  He was barely out of Semiramis’ sight when she repented and sent a counter-order, but it was too late. The people had got hold of him and all the Queen’s power could not take him out of their hands. The most furious wanted to chop him to pieces then and there. So, with a saintly tranquility he waited in irons for the end of his life—his virtue gave him a serenity that put him above even the cruelest events.

  A Council was held and it decided that he would be burned alive. The stake was set up, they attached him to the post and the ready torches were set on fire. But the righteous Heavens, protector of innocence, burst forth. Thunder roared and the people were astonished. The sky was lit up everywhere by lightning flashes. It looked like the Universe was about to collapse and return to eternal night. Everyone cried out that Serapis was avenging the outrage to his minister. They ran to the stake, untied Lamekis and led him in triumph to the temple. They sacrificed to the divinity, and the Heavens eased up. Calm followed the fury.

  But the Queen herself had trembled in fear and then buried herself in terrible grief when the High Priest was swept away from her anger. And her desire for revenge revived. She sent some guards to seize Lamekis, but he was too clever to be exposed to such a danger a second time. He went down into the catacombs, sowing chaos and confusion. Holding nothing back, he aroused in them the desire to defend themselves and to carry out the plans that the ministers had been working on for so long; they said that they wanted to destroy the monarchy, make Serapis the everlasting King and rule under his name and auspices. The undertaking was bold and would have succeeded, but the Queen’s policies and determination foiled their criminal project.

  The officer in charge of arresting Lamekis reported that he could not be found and had probably gone back to the underground. She led them to the temple and searched it so carefully that the trapdoor to the catacombs was found. Troops were brought in to go down, but were surprised to find it walled up. Workers were ordered to break it down. For eight days in a row they worked at it without being able to get through. As much as they demolished one side, they rebuilt the other. It was an endless labor and they were forced to stop and find another means of access.

  The more difficulties they faced, the more determined Semiramis became. The resistance troubled her and she tried every way imaginable to get underground. She brought in countless workers to dig an entrance, but no matter how hard they worked or how deep they dug, they found no trace of what they were looking for. The people began to whisper that it was a fruitless task and believed they should abandon it. But finally after six months they hit a vault. They informed the Queen who wanted to be present when they broke through. They people armed themselves, the vault was broken and a detachment was ordered to go down into the underground. They found a whole city, as big as the capital, but deserted. Semiramis trembled at the news and sent twice as many guards to make a thorough search.

  That’s what the hidden enemy wanted. They had set up an ambush in the confusing maze that hacked the Queen’s troops to pieces. Only one soldier, who was in charge of watching the device they used to descend, escaped. He gave the signal, was brought back up and reported the fatal news, telling them that the number of conspirators was so great and their hideout was so well defended that it was hopeless to take them by force. They held a council after this news and found a very easy method of destroying the rebellious swarm. It was decided that they would write to the High Priest on behalf of the Queen and warn him that if his ministers and the enemy population did not put down their arms and surrender to the mercy of the Queen, they would destroy them without a single person escaping the dreadful fate awaiting them.

  Lamekis believed it was an empty threat just to intimidate them. He answered that he and his people were ready to die rather than give up their arms; they were determined to defend themselves; it was kill or be killed. The Queen was informed of their stubborn response and had a ditch dug from the Nile to the buried vault. When they got four measures deep, she had a second letter written to the rebels in which they warned them of the means they had to destroy every last one of them. To prove her threat she wanted them to send four representatives to verify it and she would send four of her people as hostages. The offer was accepted. The envoys saw the arm of the Nile dangerously close to their dwelling and admitted that there was no way to escape being drowned. They asked for six hours to give an answer and then reported the sad news to the underground city. At the end of the period, one of them showed up at the bottom of the device and handed a letter to the guard, who immediately sent it to the Queen. And she read the following dispatch:

  To Semiramis from Lamekis, High Priest:

  The kindness you honored me with, Madame, deserves my sincere gratitude and now I am ready to bid you an eternal farewell. The least I owe you is a picture of the real situation and of my true feelings.

  The cult of Serapis is destroyed. The god’s predictions are accomplished, but his temple is eternal and will survive as long as the Earth turns on its
axis. The waters of the Nile can destroy his ministers’ refuge, but they will never put out the sacred fires that burn in their hearts. His supreme bounty, while suffering the destruction of the temple, long ago prepared a place to shelter us from all powers. Before this letter is read, the people persecuted by your hatred will be in a safe place, a secret underground passage will lead them to the shores of an unknown sea where ships are always ready to take them to the land where Serapis reigns. I thought I should tell you this so that your calm life will not be disturbed and you will have nothing to fear from these men who never offended you for the simple reason that they never knew you.

  On reading the letter the Queen was rattled and made them go down into the underground. They searched everywhere, but this time reported that it was deserted and it even seemed that they had taken supplies to survive for awhile, but the maze was so full of twists and turns that it was impossible to know which way the people had fled. The Queen sent down her cleverest officers and they said the same thing. But the Princess was defiant and suspected new stratagems, so she sent down even more guards than before and ordered them to leave no stone unturned to find out how the rebels got away.

  The officer she put in charge of this project was the avowed enemy of the ministers of Serapis and did his duty with zeal. The orders were so strict and he himself examined the place so carefully that he finally discovered the escape route. Lamekis thought he could fool them by building a wall behind them as they slipped away, not imagining that they would search the remote corner, but he had not figured on such a clever man as the one the Queen had dispatched. The Commandant recognized that the wall was new and had it knocked down. Two hours later he found that it led to the coast. He sent word to the Queen and he himself was so dutiful that by the middle of the night he had stopped the ship on which Lamekis was about to be saved, since he was the last to leave, putting, like any good citizen, his country’s safety before his own. He was caught completely off guard when he was arrested along with two women and three children.

  Imagine the joy that Semiramis felt when she heard the news. She celebrated by destroying the catacombs—she drowned them in the waters of the Nile. To top off her vengeance she knocked down the temple razing it to the ground.

  When the Queen found out that one of the women arrested on the boat was Lamekis’ wife, she was furious. She had recovered from the High Priest’s denial of her desires by believing that since he was born in the worship of the gods his heart was love-proof, but if she kept at him, he would eventually succumb to her charms. So this news magnified her anger and revived her passion. She summoned him and her eyes and love tried over and over again to latch onto him. But Lamekis’ fidelity withstood her efforts while using all his wisdom to put out Semiramis’ fires. His virtuous speeches were of no use; his resistance frustrated her. Her hatred regained the upper hand and she was ready twenty times over to revenge her outraged passion by sacrificing the High Priest and his wife to her fury. But her canny rage, not satisfied with a death that would free them from her tyranny, came up with new and untried ways to drag out the punishment. She had a raft built on which she fastened Lamekis and those with him and she cast them onto the sea without food, water, masts or sails.

  Lamekis on the high seas

  Here, Oh Sinouis, is where I will start talking about myself. I was one of Lamekis’ poor children. I was 10 years old and even at that age I felt all the hardship of our fate. My father was very strong and steadfast. With his wise words and his piety he urged us to resign ourselves to our misfortune. Milkhea, my mother, cried bitter tears. Seeing me and my little sister in swaddling clothes (who would perish before our eyes) broke her heart. The cries of Haronza, the wife of the chief minister of the ruined catacombs, whose daughter hung from her breast, added to our sorry state—the worst, most dire situation possible—so that we hoped for death to bring a swift end to our fatigue.

  We spent three days and nights in that dire situation. The death of my little sister started the catastrophe. “Oh Heavens!” Milkhea cried, snatching her out of the arms of Lamekis who wanted to throw her into the sea to remove the heartbreaking thing. “Give me the comfort of dying with this dear child. Savage Queen, what have I done to deserve such cruel punishment? And you, my son,” she looked at me with tear-drowned eyes, “will the Heavens not take pity on your youth? Oh Serapis! Oh hideous fate! Must everything living die?”

  Haronza died of weakness on the fourth day. We had no more tears to shed; desperation had dried them all up. An awful silence fell upon us. Only Lamekis seemed to be waiting calmly for an end to this terrible tragedy. My little sister’s nanny was driven by devouring hunger to throw herself on dying Haronza’s daughter, wanting to eat her in a fit. Lamekis screamed out at the sight and tried in vain to stop her ghastly desire. The horror that I felt made me jump on the woman and wrench away her prey. I bore the marks of her rage—her murderous teeth bit out a chunk of my hand. She devoured my flesh like a fury in front of us while I howled in pain.

  This new tragedy, however, saved the life of Haronza’s daughter. My mother put her to her breast and took my hand. She tried to stop my bleeding with a bandage and when a few drops of blood by chance fell into the crying infant’s mouth, the baby calmed down instantly and started smiling. My mother noticed this and seeing me suck my wound because it helped me feel better, she suggested I give some to the poor little girl. She grabbed it as eagerly and intensely as my mother’s breast and soon opened her eyes completely. The gruesome new food brought her back to life. Then Milkhea was sorry that she had not given her blood to save the life of her own daughter. I found some relief and felt a secret consolation whose motives I could not understand. Oh Serapis, how wonderful your decrees are! Who could ever have foreseen what would come of this event!

  It was impossible, however, for us to pull through this harsh situation. We were more ravaged by thirst than by hunger. The seawater we tasted, far from refreshing us, burned our hearts. We were ready to be devastated by all this when the wind suddenly changed; heavy rain and hail fell. The raft was filled up and we saw it like manna sent from the Heavens to prolong our sorry lives. We jumped on it eagerly and it tasted so delicious that our energy was, so to speak, reanimated. But as comforting as this was, it did nothing to assuage our devouring hunger. One desire is satisfied and another, more insistent, arises. All our energy was gone and lethargy soon followed anger. Lamekis was the first to give in. In spite of his strength in adversity he fell backward and Milkhea soon did the same. The infant was crying, but my blood still sustained her, even as I felt the pain of my wound come back. My poor life was not going to last long, but the gods did not want to put a quick end to my misery.

  The raft suddenly beached on a bank of sand. It stretched out in both directions and was covered with shellfish. The natural desire we have to save our lives made me taste one. It was so delicious that I cried out in joy. “Ah, my father! Ah, my mother!” I cried. “The Heavens have taken pity on us. See the gifts before us. They will bring us back to life.”

  They both opened their eyes, but they barely had the strength to react. “Oh my son!” Lamekis said. “Let the Heavens preserve us. The kindness of your heart has earned us these miracles.”

  They ate some and I put some in the mouth of the little girl. It had such a wonderful effect on all of us that we soon felt drowsy. The cruel woman who had bit me in fury was dead and it was very hard for us to unload her from the raft.

  Motacoa saves Lamekis

  I was buried deeply in sleep, which I had not had for a very long time, but I woke up with a start when I felt myself being carried away by someone. I opened my eyes and what a surprise! I was in the arms of a man with an extraordinary face. I called out for my father Lamekis and my mother. Because of the night I could not make out my surroundings; I could only tell that I was on land. I cried and the man carrying me patted me and tried to calm me down. At the end of an hour-long walk he descended into a grotto where he put me down on a sm
all mat bed. The grief of being taken away from my loved ones almost made me pass out and I was so crushed that I went more than two days without opening my eyes or eating anything.

  But on the third day I looked around. A pretty woman, whom I had not seen before, was sitting near me. She seemed worried about my desperate condition. She was talking to me in an unknown language trying to get me to eat what she was holding. I finally tasted some and found it so good that I gobbled it up. It was a kind of rice cooked with meat and the woman looked happy that I gobbled it up greedily.

  A moment later the man who had brought me came in. The woman ran up to him and talked excitedly while watching me. He raised his eyes to the Heavens to express his infinite gratitude. I heard the word “Lamekis” in their conversation and I started crying and whimpering, “Lamekis, Milkhea.” They looked at each other and repeated the words. The man left, came right back and, holding out his hand, said, “Lamekis, Papo.”23 I understood nothing and kept crying bitter tears.

  The Sun was fully risen and I could easily make out the dwelling. The grotto was cut out of a rock and the very high ceiling let in the sunlight through a crevasse in the mountain. Thousands of different seashells decorated it nicely. Water pure as crystal came out of one corner, murmuring pleasantly and dropping into a basin that it had hollowed out and then disappearing into a crack in the rock. In the back of the grotto, across from the fountain, was another ceiling, lower than the first, which seemed to have been purposely made into an alcove. There was a big mat bed with foam that never settled. In the opposite corner was a kind of armoire in the rock with an earthenware dish that was black as a crow and shining like marble. But what really caught my attention was a big animal, almost as tall as a donkey, with black-spotted, sky-blue fur. Its body was somewhat like a deer, its head like a mastiff and its eyes were gentle and very beautiful; it looked around with an odd expression. In spite of my pain I could not help petting it. It seemed to enjoy that and started licking my wounded hand. Its tongue was soft and so comforting that I let it continue. During this time I looked at my hosts whom I had not yet examined too closely. The man’s face was blue and gentle and pleasant and seemed to be in the prime of life. The woman’s was pale pink, suiting her, with beautiful, very delicate features. And the way she was dressed totally complimented her.